2016 Copa America to be held in U.S.

[KC McElroy]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...merica?cc=5901

South American soccer officials announced Wednesday that the United States will host a joint CONMEBOL-CONCACAF Copa America tournament in 2016.

The partnership will celebrate the 100th anniversary of CONMEBOL, South America's federation. It will include 10 CONMEBOL teams, many of them filled with international stars, the U.S. and Mexico as guaranteed entries and four other CONCACAF squads, to be determined based on highest previous Gold Cup finish. It will take place in the summer of 2016, although exact dates and venues have not been announced.

Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Neymar, Oscar and Radamel Falcao are among those who could represent South American teams.

CONCACAF, which represents North and Central America and the Caribbean, holds its Gold Cup championship in odd-numbered years. Since 1999, South America's Copa America has been held every four years in the summers following World Cups. There have been two outside invitees since 1993, mostly from CONCACAF.

[Nokhodi]

This is awesome. About time.

[Pedram88]

i just hope they come to LA or Vegas!!

[KC McElroy]

I'm not sure it this will be an official Copa America. They already have a 2015 and 2019 version scheduled.

[EKBATAN]

hell yea!

finally a soccer even in US.....there are waaaaay more fans of the game now than there was in 94 world cup so im pretty sure most games will be sold out

i just hope its the official one

[Team Melli Fan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Am...ica_Centenario

cant wait

[PSGman#19]

Hope americans will turn to soccer like in Europe.

[arash123]

i just hope they come to LA or Vegas!!

Most definately l.a. As for vegas...even though sam boyd has had soccer matches i dont think they will for copa america but i hope i am wrong!

[KC McElroy]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...diums-selected

[EKBATAN]

forgot about this.....it'll be like a mini world cup for us here

i wish they woulda invited a euro team or two instead of mexico and other concacaf teams

[KC McElroy]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...ounced-early-m

[KC McElroy]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...nt-announcemen

[KC McElroy]

http://www.espnfc.com/news/story/_/i...enario?cc=5901

For the first time, the 2016 Copa America will be held in the United States, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, the governing bodies of South and North America, announced on Thursday.

The 2016 edition, christened the Copa America Centenario, will mark the 100th anniversary of the tournament, as well as the founding of CONMEBOL. For those reasons, CONMEBOL decided an expanded competition was needed to mark the occasion. The tournament, set for June 3-26, 2016, will be the first time that the Copa has been held outside of South America.

"For the first time, Copa America comes home; comes north," said Jeffrey Webb, CONCACAF president, who added that the U.S. venues have not yet been opened for bidding and thus are not yet known. "What football can do is unite the Americas like never before and reach a previously unexplored pinnacle."

In addition to the 10 members of CONMEBOL, six countries from CONCACAF will take part. The U.S. and Mexico are automatically invited, as will the 2014 Copa Centroamericana winner (also hosted in the U.S. this September), and the 2014 Caribbean Cup winner. The remaining two teams will come from the top four finishers from the 2015 Gold Cup that have yet to be invited, after a playoff involving those four sides.

"This is an irrefutable message that football is able to carry forward the best purposes as well as those who dreamt about football in South America and CONCACAF," said CONMEBOL president Eugenio Figueredo, who added that he did not yet know whether the Cup would be a FIFA date. "We value CONCACAF allowing us to build a joint history and we want to strengthen."

The Centenario will be a special event outside of the Copa's regular quadrennial schedule, and the regularly scheduled Copas in Chile in 2015 and 2019 in Brazil will continue as scheduled.

The plans for an expanded Copa America have been in the works for some time, with CONMEBOL announcing in October 2012 its initial plans for the tournament. But there have been several obstacles that delayed an official announcement, the biggest being the release of CONCACAF players by their clubs.

Since CONCACAF teams are technically being invited as guests to partake in what is ostensibly a South American tournament, clubs were not obligated to release players.

"We are making this effort with Jeffrey [Webb] and FIFA so all national teams can bring their best [teams]," said Figueredo. "Each country will be competing to become the champion, and they are definitely going to try to have their best team."

U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati had long maintained that unless players from CONCACAF were released, there would be little point in hosting the tournament. That stumbling block is in the process of being resolved.

Another sticking point is the impact that the tournament will have on the FIFA calendar, given that Euro 2016, World Cup qualifying, and the Olympic soccer tournament are all set to take place during the summer. That issue is still being negotiated as well.

"I'm not clear if it will be on a FIFA date or not," said Figueredo. "We have been of late insisting that should be on the FIFA calendar."

The 2016 edition of the Copa will mark the fourth time the U.S. has participated in the tournament. The U.S. were eliminated in the group stage in 1993 and 2007, but reached the semifinals in 1995, when they was beaten 1-0 by Brazil.

The U.S. sent an under-strength squad to the 2007 Copa America in Venezuela, where they lost group-stage games to Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia.

The tournament will overlap with Euro 2016, which kicks off on June 10 of that year.

[Team Melli Fan]

I'm so going to this

[KC McElroy]

http://www.espnfc.us/copa-america/st...e-in-us-source

The odds of the Copa America Centenario being held in the U.S. next summer are becoming longer by the day, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

A meeting to slated to decide the tournament's fate will be held on Thursday in Mexico City, with CONMEBOL and CONCACAF executive committee members scheduled to attend. However, a U.S. Soccer Federation spokesman confirmed an earlier report from the New York Times that the USSF will not have a representative present at the summit. A source also confirmed the Times' report that the USSF may pull out as host of the event.

In May, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 14 soccer and marketing executives on corruption charges. Some of the alleged crimes included bribes related to commercial rights for the Copa America Centenario.

As a consequence, both CONCACAF and the USSF want greater transparency in terms of the commercial arrangements for the tournament, and assurances from CONMEBOL that everything is above board.

Last week, CONCACAF issued a statement in which it alluded to the concerns of both the confederation and the USSF.

"We are continuing to work with CONMEBOL, the US Soccer Federation and all other stakeholders on hosting the Copa America Centenario tournament in the United States," the statement read. "CONCACAF is committed to continue working with all parties to address the operational, format and financial issues relating to the tournament in order to ensure greater transparency to this event. We are hopeful that the meeting on Thursday in Mexico City will lead to progress on these issues."

It seems unlikely that this goal will be reached to the USSF's satisfaction, however.

The transparency issue has been known by all parties for months, and yet the two sides haven't been able to reach a resolution. Several deadlines set by the USSF have been missed by CONMEBOL.

The source indicated that there are several companies that the USSF is uncomfortable with still involved in the tournament in some capacity. Until that issue is resolved, it appears likely the two sides will remain at an impasse.

As to whether the U.S. would play in the tournament, even if it didn't host the event, that remains uncertain.

The source stated that there was a 50-50 chance the U.S. would play. At present, the U.S. doesn't have any other games scheduled for the summer months, and the desire to play against top competition with its full team is strong. However that also assumes that the U.S. would be invited, which the source said isn't guaranteed if the U.S. backs out as host.

Since 2007, Copa America has been held every four years, with the latest edition having been staged last June in Chile. This edition is designed to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the formation of CONMEBOL, and was set to include six nations from CONCACAF in addition to the 10 countries that comprise the South American federation.